Transducer devices are used in a variety of applications to transfer energy between electrical systems and mechanical systems. Quartz crystal microbalance (QCM), for example, is a transducer-based technology that may employ piezoelectric transducers in various configurations to perform sensing functions. QCM technology takes advantage of the fact that the resonant frequency of a transducer typically varies with the effective mass of the transducer. Accordingly, when portions of a sample material bind to the transducer, the mass of the bonded sample material can be detected by monitoring the resonant frequency of the vibrating mass.
A related technology is rupture event scanning (RES), in which transducers may be employed to produce mechanical energy to break bonds within a sample material. In addition to providing energy to break the bonds, the transducers may be used as sensors to analyze acoustic events (e.g., a pressure wave) that can occur when bonds break. Different types of bonds have unique properties that produce distinctive acoustic events. The bonds can be identified and analyzed by using various techniques to study the acoustic events.
Transducer-based sensor systems often include multiple transducer devices to perform sensing operations on a sample. In many such systems, each transducer is associated with or positioned near a corresponding portion of the sample to be tested. Typically, the transducers are coupled to supporting components that are shared among the transducers, such as drive signal generators, components for processing outputs, etc. The interconnections between the transducers and these shared components, the close proximity of the transducers, and other factors can lead to crosstalk, stray capacitance and inductance, unwanted transmission line effects, and/or other sources of noise. These factors can complicate efforts to obtain output signals for the individual transducers employed in the system.